Two major state schools--UC San Diego and the University of Washington--will pay $8.3 million to settle civil charges that their research hospitals bilked the federal government by improperly billing Medicare for experimental medical devices, officials disclosed Wednesday. The action by the two universities is expected to increase pressure on 127 other research centers, which face similar federal charges, to settle with prosecutors.

The NCAA has informed the University of Washington that it has completed an inquiry and does not plan to take action stemming from allegations that a former assistant football coach who worked under Steve Sarkisian paid for private tutoring and online classes for a recruit. The NCAA investigated allegations that former defensive line coach Tosh Lupoi gave $4,500 to a former high school track coach to pay for academic services for Andrew Basham, who signed with Washington in February 2013 but did not qualify academically to enroll.

What was supposed to be a surprise visit home from Seattle by seven Southland football players turned into a serious accident on Interstate 5 early Friday morning near Medford, Ore. The players--all University of Washington redshirt freshmen--were injured when their rented van collided head-on with a car traveling the wrong way on the freeway, about 22 miles north of the Oregon-California border. The driver of the car, Rene Guzman-Velloso, died upon impact.

University of Washington President Mark A. Emmert was named the NCAA's new chief executive on Tuesday. He succeeds Myles Brand , who died last September from pancreatic cancer. Brand was the first ex-university president to lead college sports' largest governing body and the first chief executive to die in office. Jim Isch has served as interim president since Sept. 22 and will continue to do so for the next several months. Emmert will begin his duties Nov. 1. NCAA officials said he was given a five-year contract.

The doctors told his parents he probably wouldn't survive. Shane Pahukoa, playing with children in the back yard of a relative's house while vacationing in Vancouver, Wash., had suffered third-degree burns on his head, neck, left hand and body when a cousin poured gasoline onto a campfire, causing the flames to leap onto Pahukoa's face. As he lay in a hospital bed in Portland, Ore., his head swelled to about three times its normal size. His mother couldn't recognize him.

A University of Washington booster loaned money to the son-in-law of Husky football Coach Don James to hire a football player for a summer job, an apparent violation of NCAA rules, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported. "You have to get paid from the people you work for," NCAA legislative services director Bob Oliver told the newspaper. The report in Saturday's editions said Jim Heckman, publisher of the tabloid Sports Washington, got Herb Mead of Bellevue, Wash.

Tim Martin of San Clemente High School, the Orange County record-holder in the 100 meters (10.56 seconds), signed a letter of intent to attend the University of Washington in the fall, Martin said Friday. The three-year sprint finalist at the State meet also visited UCLA and Nevada-Reno.

Dr. Edwin G. Krebs, the University of Washington Nobel laureate who co-discovered the mechanism by which a wide variety of processes are turned on and off within cells and thereby led to an explosion of knowledge about how cells grow, change, divide and die, died Dec. 21 in Seattle from progressive heart failure. He was 91. Krebs and his co-laureate Edmond H. Fischer discovered that most processes within cells -- ranging from fundamental metabolic reactions to the initiation of cancer -- are triggered when key proteins are activated by a process called phosphorylation, in which a phosphate molecule is added to the protein.

Dr. Walter E. Stamm, whose discoveries on the diagnosis and treatment of urinary tract infections and of the relationship between chlamydia and pelvic inflammatory disease saved tens of thousands of women from infertility, died Dec. 14 at his home in Seattle. He was 64 and had been battling melanoma. Stamm "was one of the giants . . . who really transformed diagnosis and treatment of genitourinary infections, particularly those that result in pelvic inflammatory diseases," said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which funded much of his work.

USC offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian will be offered the job as Washington's head coach, a source with knowledge of the situation said Thursday. Sarkisian, 34, interviewed for the job over Thanksgiving. He said he spoke to Washington officials Wednesday but had not been offered the job. "I'm one of some number of candidates, which I'm honored to be, but nothing has been finalized in any way shape or form," Sarkisian said.

When she closes her eyes, college sophomore Courtney Ioane can visualize the statue of Bruce Lee that she wants erected on the University of Washington campus. It is bronze and life-size -- not so big that it dominates the area but substantial enough to be noticed. And the legendary fighter and movie star would not be punching or kicking but sitting in a meditative pose. "Bruce Lee was more than a martial artist," said Ioane, 20. "He also had an amazing philosophy of life.

It happens so infrequently one man is flying cross-country to witness it. Volcanic eruption? The comet Kohutek? Would you believe: Two African American coaches going against each other in a major college football game. "It is a rare sighting," said Floyd Keith, executive director of the Black Coaches' Assn. It's so every-now-and-then Keith is jetting in from Indianapolis to attend Saturday night's game between Washington and UCLA at the Rose Bowl. Because. . . ? Karl Dorrell vs.

If there is a spoiler in every tournament crowd, the prime suspect in the Pacific 10 Conference's basketball tournament comes from the University of Washington. "It hasn't looked like it all the time this year," said Huskies forward Jon Brockman after Washington upset then second-ranked UCLA, 61-51, last week, "but this is a good team capable of anything." The Huskies, 18-12 overall but 8-10 in conference play, were once ranked as high as No.

William Gerberding, University of Washington president, has told its football coach, Don James, to stop taking $100,000 a year from an unidentified group of business people and boosters until he submits a copy of the contract to the school. James' total pay last year was $470,000, according to records released by the university.

Dee Brown took a moment to commemorate his high-arcing three-pointer that beat the halftime buzzer Saturday afternoon at Cox Arena, leaping high in the air to chest-bump teammate Brian Randle. The senior guard's basket had drawn Illinois to within a basket of Washington, and when the Fighting Illini opened the second half by scoring 14 of the first 16 points, it seemed as if a game of wild momentum swings was headed Illinois' way.

For a guy who always knew how he wanted to make his living, Brandon Roy once seemed closer to collecting welfare than an NBA paycheck. Though he had been hotly recruited at Seattle Garfield High and even flirted with the idea of bypassing college to turn pro, Roy spent his first few months out of high school working part time at a shipping-container plant. It was not the type of lifestyle that attracts an entourage.